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UK to Switzerland by train...
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|
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Taking the train to Switzerland: On
board a TGV from Paris to Lausanne, 1st class
from £46...
|
It's easy to travel from
the UK to Switzerland by train. It's civilised,
comfortable, environmentally-friendly and affordable, altogether a much less stressful
experience than flying. Take
Eurostar from London to Paris in just 2 hours 15 minutes for
as little as £59 return, then take a high-speed TGV train from
Paris to Geneva, Lausanne, Bern or Zurich for as little as £23
each way. Or as little as £46 in 1st class! Unlike
a flight, that's city centre to city centre, with no baggage
fees, no airport taxes, bring your own bottle of wine for the
journey if you like, and infants go free. Paris-Geneva
takes just 3½
hours and there's great scenery in the French Alps on the way.
This page will explain the best routes, train times, fares, and how
to buy tickets both online and by phone.
On this page...
London to Basel & Zurich
London to Bern
London to Geneva
London to Lausanne, Montreux, Gstaad
London to Interlaken,
Grindelwald, Jungfrau region
London to
Brig, Zermatt, Matterhorn area
London to Chur, Klosters, Davos, St Moritz, Engadin region
Scotland, north of England, East Anglia to Switzerland
For a
map of the Swiss rail network,
click here.
The Jungfraubahn mountain railway
to the Top of Europe.
On other pages...
The Glacier Express scenic
train from Zermatt to St Moritz
Buying connecting
train tickets from other UK towns & cities
Scotland & North of
England to Switzerland avoiding London
West Country & South
Coast to Switzerland avoiding London
Taking your bike
Dogs
Luggage
Left
luggage facilities in Paris
Passengers with
disabilities
General info
Sponsored links:
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It's easy to
travel from London to Basel or Zurich by train, taking
Eurostar to Paris, a
10 minute walk
from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de l'Est, then a direct
Paris-Switzerland high-speed TGV on the brand-new TGV-Est
line, opened in June 2007. It's affordable, too, London to
Basel starts at £119 return, city centre to city centre.
The TGVs from Paris to Basel & Zurich are run by Lyria, a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
Train
times...
The new
TGV-Est high-speed line opened on 10 June 2007,
replacing conventional trains with high-speed TGVs and
slashing journey times from Paris to Basel & Zurich. A wonderful
and relaxing way to travel!
London
► Basel & Zurich
|
|
Eurostar
(30 min check-in): |
Mon-Sat |
Mon-Sat |
Sun |
Mon-Thur
* |
Fri * |
Sun * |
Daily
* |
|
London St Pancras depart: |
07:27 |
13:32 |
13:00 |
20:05 |
20:05 |
20:32 |
20:05 |
|
Paris Gare du Nord arrive: |
10:56 |
16:47 |
16:17 |
23:20* |
23:20* |
23:47* |
23:20* |
|
10
min walk
to the Gare de l'Est for the Lyria TGV to
Switzerland... |
|
Paris Gare de l'Est depart: |
12:24 |
17:54 |
17:54 |
06:24 |
06:54 |
06:24 |
08:24 |
|
Basel
arrive: |
15:51 |
21:15 |
21:15 |
09:56 |
10:25 |
09:56 |
11:50 |
|
Zurich
arrive: |
17:00 |
22:26 |
22:26 |
11:26** |
12:00** |
11:26** |
13:00 |
How to
read these timetables... *
These journeys require an overnight
hotel stop in Paris. Take any Eurostar you
like between London & Paris.
** Going to
Zurich, you must change in Basel. The Lyria TGV
from Paris terminates in Basel.
***
Coming from Zurich, you must change trains
in Basel. This Lyria TGV to Paris starts in Basel.
Basel & Zurich
► London
|
|
Lyria
TGV: |
Daily |
Daily |
Daily |
Daily * |
|
Zurich depart: |
07:02 |
09:34*** |
14:02 |
18:02 |
|
Basel depart: |
08:02 |
11:02 |
15:02 |
19:02 |
|
Paris Gare de l'Est arrive: |
11:34 |
14:34 |
18:34 |
22:37 |
|
10
min walk
to the Gare du Nord for Eurostar (30 min check-in) |
|
Paris Gare du Nord depart: |
13:01 |
16:13 |
20:13 |
07:13 |
|
London St Pancras
arrive: |
14:34 |
17:34 |
21:41 |
08:28 |
On board
the TGV from Paris to Basel or Zurich...
 |
|
 |
| The TGV
trains from Paris to Basel & Zurich feature chic new
designer interiors by Christian Lacroix. |
How much does
it cost?
|
London to Paris
by
Eurostar:
|
From £35 one-way or £59 return 2nd class.
Child, youth & senior fares
From £99
one-way or £175 return 1st class.
Advice on one-way Eurostar fares
|
| |
|
Paris to Zurich
by
direct Lyria
TGV train: |
2nd class
|
1st class |
|
One way |
Return |
One way |
Return |
|
Book-ahead fares: |
From £33 |
From £66 |
From £60 |
From £120 |
|
Normal flexible fare: |
£95 |
£153 |
£149 |
£235 |
|
Youth fare (anyone 12-26): |
£56 |
£112 |
£92 |
£184 |
|
Senior fare (anyone over 60): |
£67 |
£134 |
£95 |
£190 |
|
Child (4 to 11): |
£46 |
£92 |
£76 |
£152 |
|
Child (0 to 3): |
Free if not occupying
its own seat, £12 each way with own seat. |
|
Railpass
fare: |
£8 reservation fee for holders of InterRail, Eurail,
etc. |
|
Person in wheelchair: |
£67 one-way, £134 return, 1st class. Companion
£16 each way. |
|
Dogs & pets
(see
here): |
£42 each way. Guide dogs free. |
|
|
|
Paris to Basel
by
Lyria
TGV train: |
2nd class
|
1st class |
|
One way |
Return |
One way |
Return |
|
Book-ahead fares: |
From £23 |
From £46 |
From £46 |
From £92 |
|
Normal flexible fare: |
£80 |
£124 |
£128 |
£193 |
|
Youth fare (anyone 12-26): |
£52 |
£104 |
£77 |
£154 |
|
Senior fare (anyone over 60): |
£56 |
£112 |
£86 |
£172 |
|
Child (4 to 11): |
£35 |
£70 |
£59 |
£118 |
|
Child (0 to 3): |
Free if not occupying
its own seat, £12 each way with own seat. |
|
Railpass
fare: |
£8 reservation fee for holders of InterRail, Eurail,
etc. |
|
Person in wheelchair: |
£56 one-way, £112 return, 1st class. Companion
£16 each way. |
|
Dogs & pets
(see
here): |
£36 each way. Guide dogs free. |
How to buy tickets online...
The easiest & cheapest way for UK residents to buy tickets to anywhere in
Switzerland is online at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
just use the booking form below.
But please read the booking tips below first.
If you live in another European country,
click here. If you live
outside Europe,
click here.
You can also now buy through tickets from the UK to
Switzerland at
www.eurostar.com, see the next section.
Children under 4 go free, no ticket required.
Children = children over 4 but under 12.
Youth = anyone under 26. Senior = anyone over 60.
Advice on buying train tickets from other UK
towns & cities |
Booking tips ...
-
This booking form links to
www.raileurope.co.uk.
-
Tickets can be collected at St Pancras or stations in
France free of charge, or sent to a UK
address for a £1.95 fee.
-
There's no fee for debit cards, but they charge a 2% credit card fee. Only
UK credit cards are accepted.
-
Reservations for Lyria TGVs to Switzerland open 90 days before
departure. You can't book before reservations open,
but if you ask
www.raileurope.co.uk
for a date more than 90 days ahead, it will offer to send an
email
reminder when reservations open. A
useful facility!
To get an idea of prices if your date of travel is more than
90 days away, ask it for a date within the
next 90 days. Be aware that the 90 days is often
squeezed to less than 90 in the few weeks
immediately after the European timetable changes in
mid-June & mid-December. Ask for a date before the
timetable change to get an idea of price.
-
Top tip:
It's best to treat London to (say) Zurich as two
separate journeys, one from London to Paris, the other
Paris to Zurich. This gives you more control, and
allows you to mix and match (for example) 2nd class Eurostar
with 1st class on the Lyria TGV. It also allows
stopovers in Paris is you like.
-
Step 1, change 'St Pancras' to 'Paris' and book from Paris to
Switzerland & back. On the
confirmation page, clicking 'show itinerary details' shows the
specific coach number & seat number
you've been given. Check your TGV times before booking
the Eurostar, as engineering work sometimes affects arrival
times.
-
Step 2, when you've booked the train from Paris to
Switzerland & back,
click 'continue shopping' and book the Eurostar from London
to Paris & back. Use
the Eurostar times on this page as a guide, but feel free to
choose an earlier Eurostar from London or a later Eurostar
back from Paris, if these have cheaper seats available
or if you'd like to stop off in Paris.
For a one-way
journey on Eurostar, see this advice.
-
Tickets are sent from Rail Europe's UK office and normally arrive in a couple of
days. If you need any help, you can call Rail Europe's
UK call centre on 0844 848 5 848.
|
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New!
www.eurostar.com now sells train tickets to
Switzerland...
www.eurostar.com can now sell train tickets from London
or over 130 UK towns & cities to these stations in
Switzerland: Aigle, Basel, Berne, Brig, Chur, Geneva,
Landquart, Lausanne, Leuk, Martigny, Montreux, Neuchatel,
Sargans, Sierre, Sion, Vallorbe, Visp or Zurich.
Special though fares from London to Switzerland start at £99
return.
-
Plus points: If the
cheapest prices are available (but note the 'if'), the
special through fares sold by
www.eurostar.com can be the cheapest way to reach
Switzerland by train. Unlike
www.raileurope.co.uk,
it allows you to book through tickets from 130 towns &
cities all over the UK, not just from London or Ebbsfleet or
Ashford.
www.eurostar.com accepts all credit cards, not just UK
ones, & allows tickets to be collected on departure in
London, so it's good if you live outside the UK. It
also allows you to choose a specific Eurostar seat.
-
Limitations:
www.eurostar.com can only sell these special through
fares with no stopovers.
www.raileurope.co.uk
can be cheaper, as it is capable of combining cheap
London-Paris fares with cheap Paris-Switzerland fares.
This often works out better value, as large numbers of cheap
tickets are loaded into the system for these two busy
sectors whereas the number of cheap London-Switzerland
through tickets loaded into the system seems to be
relatively small. By booking London-Paris &
Paris-Switzerland separately,
www.raileurope.co.uk
can also be used to arrange stopovers in Paris. Top
tip: Try both
www.eurostar.com &
www.raileurope.co.uk!
How to buy
tickets by phone or in person...
Call
Rail
Europe on 0844 848 5 848 (lines open
08:00-21:00 Monday-Friday, 09:00-18:00 Saturday, no longer
open on Sundays, £8 booking fee), or Ffestiniog
Travel on 01766 772050 (office hours
Monday-Friday, 8% booking fee). You can also buy
tickets in person at Rail Europe's central London travel
centre, at 1 Regent Street, open 10:00-18:00 Monday-Friday,
10:00-17:00 Saturdays. For
more information about booking European trains, see
the How to buy train
tickets to Europe page.
Residents of any country may use voyages-sncf.com.
Tickets can be sent free of charge to any address in Europe including the
UK, or collected from any main French station.
The French Railways website has exactly the same fares as
www.raileurope.co.uk.
On the plus side, because of exchange rates, buying in euros
at
www.voyages-sncf.com can be a bit cheaper than buying in
pounds at
www.raileurope.co.uk,
and there are no postage or credit card fees.
The disadvantage is that if anything goes wrong you'll be
dealing directly with French Railways through French call
centres rather than a UK company. It's your
decision!
-
Booking for trains to Switzerland opens 90 days before
departure, you can't book before reservations open!
-
Go to
www.voyages-sncf.com. The 'English' button is a UK flag at
the bottom. Clicking it now sends you to their UK mini-site,
www.tgv-europe.com. The UK version of tgv-europe.com
will send tickets to any UK address or allows
ticket collection at any main French station (if your
journey starts in France, obviously). To have tickets sent to
addresses in other European countries, change the mini-site
to the appropriate country by clicking the flag and country
name at the bottom of the page. If you live outside
Europe, see the advice in the next
section.
-
First, book the train from Paris to Switzerland and back.
Top tip:
If you see no cheap fares through to your final destination, try looking for a
cheap fare from Paris to the first interchange point, then
book a full fare
ticket for the internal Swiss leg of the journey separately.
For example, if you see no cheap fares from Paris to Zurich,
look for cheap fares from Paris to Basel then book Basel to
Zurich as a separate journey.
-
If and when an advanced booking form appears, look for the
drop-down country list and change it to 'Great Britain'.
Tickets can then be sent to any UK address or picked up at
any main station in France. Selecting other countries
will switch you to the relevant mini-site, allowing ticket
despatch to other European countries.
-
When you've booked the Paris-Switzerland train, click 'add
another ticket' and book the Eurostar from London to Paris
and back as a separate journey. Use the Eurostar times
on this page as a guide, but feel free to choose an earlier
Eurostar from London, or a later Eurostar returning from
Paris, if these have cheaper seats available or if you'd
like to stop off in Paris. For a one-way trip on
Eurostar, see
this advice.
-
Perhaps the best
place to buy a one-way or return ticket from London to
Switzerland is at
www.eurostar.com. Eurostar.com accepts all credit cards
and allows ticket collection at London St Pancras station on
departure. However, you can't use it to buy
tickets from Switzerland to London as there's
no facility to collect tickets in Switzerland, so for this
use raileurope.com (or .com.au etc.) as shown in the
paragraph below. If you want to stop off in Paris,
you'll need to book London-Paris & Paris-Switzerland as two
separate journeys using raileurope.com (or .com.au etc), see
the paragraph below.
-
You can buy tickets for both
Eurostar and the Paris-Switzerland trains online at
www.raileurope.com
(if you live in the USA or Canada),
www.raileurope.com.au (if you live in Australia
or NZ), or
www.raileurope.co.za (South Africa), which are
subsidiaries of French Railways. Be aware that the fares
charged may be slightly higher than those charged in Europe.
Tickets can be sent to any address in the USA, Canada,
Australia, NZ, South Africa or
worldwide.
Find agencies in other countries...
-
Alternatively, to buy tickets at
European prices, buy the
London-Paris Eurostar online at
www.eurostar.com, selecting the option to pick up
tickets at the station. Remember that on Eurostar, a
return ticket is often cheaper than a one-way..! Then book the Paris-Switzerland train online at
www.voyages-sncf.com,
following this step-by-step advice, leaving 'France'
selected, which allows you to pick up tickets on the day of travel at the ticket office at any
main station in France, including Paris Gare de Lyon or Gare
de l'Est.
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Taking the train is the stress-free and
environmentally-sound alternative from London to
Bern.
Eurostar links
London and Paris in just 2 hours 40 minutes, from £59 return. High speed
'Lyria' TGV trains link Paris with Bern in
just 4 hours 45 minutes, some direct, some with a change of
train at Lausanne, with fares from £23 each way (from £41 in 1st
class!). TGVs
have
1st & 2nd class, with a buffet-bar car selling
drinks and snacks. There are power points for
mobiles & laptops at 1st class seats. Lyria is a
consortium of the French and Swiss national railways.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
| 'Lyria' high-speed TGV
train. |
|
TGV 1st
class... |
|
TGV 2nd
class... |
London
► Bern
|
|
Eurostar
(30 min check-in): |
Mon-Sat |
Sun |
Fri |
Mon-Thurs |
Sat, Sun |
Mon-Sat |
Sun |
Daily except Fri * |
Fri * |
|
London St Pancras depart: |
08:32 |
| | |
How to